NEWS: Stewart Donald reveals he received and rejected an offer for Sunderland AFC last week

Sunderland AFC owner Stewart Donald revealed during his appearance on the Roker Rapport Podcast today that he rejected a lucrative offer from an interested party to purchase the club from him last week.

By [size=10]Gav1879@Gav1879 Oct 29, 2018, 7:34pm GM[/size][You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Sunderland owner Stewart Donald has sensationally revealed on the Roker Rapport Podcast that he received - and rejected - an offer to buy the club from him.Having refuted a question about a new board member potentially joining the club, Donald admitted that there has been plenty of interest from people wanting to invest - and said that just last week he turned down an offer for Sunderland that would have made him rich:

... I had somebody enquire last week to buy the football club, that was looking at another football club and we just said no.

When our host, Connor Bromley, asked if he would have made ‘a quick buck’ he said:

Yeah, I would have made a lot, made a lot actually.I got a call from an agent that wanted to put me in touch with somebody.Sunderland is winning games and I think people know that financially that the word has got out there that it’s outgoings and its incomings is not only sort of if you like back where it should be, but probably pretty good in comparison, and its a Premier League club in the making isn’t it?

You can hear the rest of the conversation - which went on for almost two hours, in which Donald answered absolutely every question we put to him with honesty and brutality - by downloading it for free on iTunes, Acast, Spotify and TuneIn.

[size=17]ROKER RAPPORT PODCAST!Click here for all the links to listen to the latest Roker Rapport Podcast with Sunderland AFC owner Stewart Donald.[/size]

Stewart Donald was a guest on the Roker Rapport podcast once again today and, during our chat, he discussed the surprise announcement of his co-owner Juan Sartori running for president of Uruguay.Donald revealed that he knew about the Uruguayan’s political ambitions prior to him getting involved with the club, but says he has no concerns about Sartori’s future involvement with Sunderland:

Yes , I don’t think it will effect anything for Sunderland.He’s coming over to Sunderland in the next couple of weeks. It might make it difficult for him to maybe catch a couple of games, I don’t know the impact that will have on him.It won’t lessen his desire, I’m certain of that, to make Sunderland a success.It doesn’t matter if he’s the president of Uruguay or doing something completely different, he is absolutely determined to make Sunderland a success. He is pretty single-minded and he’s not going to change from that focus, no matter what.

As well as Sartori’s run for the presidency, Donald discussed his hope of bringing Uruguayan and South American talent to the Academy of Light:

Juan is all over that, not too into the detail. He just wants to fly over 50 Uruguayans and thinks I am going to sort out the work permits, living accommodations and everything that goes with it. He’s just talent spotting.

Our host Connor Bromley asked whether Sartori was personally scouting players but Donald clarified that he just has lots of connections out there, but the plan was going ahead:

He’s got lots of connections with football clubs out there, there’s lots of players desperate to come over. I think initially Juan thought it would be as simple as chartering a jet for them and bring them over and I’ll take care of the costs. We’ll bring over 50, we’d find 10 and send back 10 but I said ‘there are employment rules Juan’.We’re just dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s but he is absolutely all over it. Hopefully there will be some decent South American players joining us for all the right reasons shortly.

I'm glad he rejected it whoever it was. We have a really good owner now who seems to understand football and what is needed at Sunderland. The engagement with the fans is excellent and so too is what's happening on the pitch. At some point we will need more money but I want Stewart Donald to continue what he started - he's doing a cracking job.

sunderpitt wrote:However Man City who have spent £1.5bn, net of sales £1bn exemplifies where the Premier League is. To succeed you need loads of money.

Forget Man City, they are unique and certainly not typical of Premier League clubs. If we manage to overcome the two hurdles in front of us and eventually make a return to the top flight, I would prefer to look at clubs like Bournemouth as way forward, managing on gates of just over 10,000 per game yet now seen as a reasonably stable Premiership club.

Don't get me wrong, I'd be absolutely delighted to see us up there fighting for honours each season but after the horror show of the past 5-6 seasons, I think a little more realism is the order of the day

________________________________________________________Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level and beat you on experience.

sunderpitt wrote:However Man City who have spent £1.5bn, net of sales £1bn exemplifies where the Premier League is. To succeed you need loads of money.

Forget Man City, they are unique and certainly not typical of Premier League clubs. If we manage to overcome the two hurdles in front of us and eventually make a return to the top flight, I would prefer to look at clubs like Bournemouth as way forward, managing on gates of just over 10,000 per game yet now seen as a reasonably stable Premiership club.

Don't get me wrong, I'd be absolutely delighted to see us up there fighting for honours each season but after the horror show of the past 5-6 seasons, I think a little more realism is the order of the day

Pretty much Donalds view Argus he goes through it step by step.

STEP 1 To make the club financially safe and he says that job is now doneSTEP 2 Get a team and manager who can achieve success and get us promoted this season, on trackSTEP 3 To establish us and hopefully get us promoted into the premier league.

In the premier league he wants no more relegation fights and named a number of clubs who have shown the way, he said top 6 is not even in his thoughts. He also said he will know when he needs help financially to make the dream come true.